Avascar's answer to half the questions seems to be "I don't know, but it's all part of the PLAN!" That is the simplest cop out one can use. If you really don't know about the world, LEARN, not from a religious book written thousands of years ago but from science. Why science? Because science provides you with evidence and proof for its theories, and tells you WHY they are true. It provides observable, testable evidence. It doesn't give you plain information without any kind of support and ask you to trust it on "faith". That's what makes it reliable.

You were raised in a Christian household, correct?

Do you realize that a person born in a Hindu household would be posting a similar FAQ about how Vishnu's ten avatars saved the world, and a person born in a Muslim household would be posting a similar FAQ about how Allah is the ruler of the universe?

The answer is simple: god is a figment of human imagination invoked to explain away things he/she cannot understand. Each person projects his/her own image as god and believes it to be true and really exist.

In psychology, this phenomenon is called a delusion.

If you're really young, I can understand, because it's hard to get out of it if you were brainwashed from birth (this may seem harsh, but it's the truth). But my advice: the sooner you realize this, the better it will be for you. The more you sink into your beliefs, the more difficult it is for you to come out of it later.

Wow! You are a poster-child for why Christianity holds people back and keeps them ignorant.

Do you not see that your post is a celebration of ignorance? You freely admit that you are unclear about the most basic things even of your own faith, and yet you base your entire world-view on it and come here to proclaim it. God has no appearance because he is uncreated? You just made that up on the spot - it makes not a shred of sense! You show your ignorance of basic Biology, Physics, History, Archeology, Chemistry, Geology and even Logic - but in stead of looking into these things and trying to understand, you shunt God in the way so you don't have to.

Your apologetics make little sense either - it is the equivalent of saying "My daddy is the strongest man in the world - he just doesn't feel like lifting up that house right now!" In my opinion, you are making your God out to be a dysfunctional parent.

If human beings were so insignificant as to not warrant any attention, then why is he so damn interested in what people do with their private parts? All that begging and pleading for food, water, safety and health is nothing to him, but a bit of nooky when you are not married or - GOD forbid! - a spot of trouserlove and he zooms in like a laser? What complete and utter twaddle!

But of course all this is not the case - it is apologetics. It is stuff that people made up to explain why there is not a single solitary shred of evidence of the existence of God! And you are parroting these people without thinking it through.

The flood was real? Magic water flew in from space and was magically flown out again? What are you, 6? Did God come back afters to fix the ice-core samples, erase all the geological evidence and magically keep all those animals alive and re-populate their gene-pools so they did not all die out from inbreeding too? Where is the genetic bottle-neck in EVERY species? Why do we see evidence of there being lots and lots of individuals in stead? Why do the ice-core samples not show a huge blip? Did God not only hide the evidence, but but contradictory evidence in its place? This is pure madness!

The Earth was not created in seven days. It took a lot longer than that for the gases and debris to coalesce. Also, the magma came later as it formed when the increasing pressure of all this stuff getting denser and denser increased. Geophysics can be added to the long list of things you know nothing about.

Your reasons for believing are: "because I do, because I do, because I do, Because I know next to nothing about the world and I want a simple explanation written in big letters that makes it OK for me to be ignorant and Because I enjoy it".

The only valid reason is the last one. I am glad you enjoy your faith, and I certainly have no interest in trying to deconvert you. But by golly is it holding you back, and it is making you sound like a buffoon. But you have to understand - you have no rational reason to suppose God exists. You believe because of an irrational leap of faith. If this faith gives you joy, strength and pride then this is surely a good thing.

BUT

You cannot make assertions about reality based on your faith alone. You must also support it with a rational reason. To not do so is madness - literally.

And please, please please stay in school. Try to look outside of this narrow new testament framework you have there. There is a huge wealth of knowledge out there, and it is absolutely fascinating and beautiful. You can understand all this stuff, you don't need to write "God did it by magic!" across it in crayon. Try to let your science teacher teach you real science and don't interrupt him with your mythological stories. Right now, your religion is keeping you ignorant. There is no reason or excuse for this.

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It is a foine loine between a poirate and a farrrmer. Oi stand astroid that foine loine.

....it makes them no more relevant than if you had popped up to say "I think that Mars Bars grow on trees". It is (very slightly) useful in that it means we know what you believe....but if you're not prepared to discuss your beliefs, then what practical purpose has been served?

But more important, I think, is this:2) You ask that we do not respond to you without providing evidence of "why (we) don't believe in god". Well, <insert appropriate rude word here> !! So its okay for YOU to post your entirely unsubstantiated beliefs, but NOT okay for us? We have to give hard evidence to back up our position? Double-standards there, no?

Harrrumph.

In any case, I don't need to give any evidence of why I don't believe in your particular god. There are - quite literally - tens of thousands of gods that have been described over the centuries, and I see no reason why I need to document my evidence for my dismissal of each one. What is required of the believer is to supply evidence FOR their particular god - not opinion - which I can then examine and test.

Either that, or you can match me claim for claim with the evidence of why YOU don't believe in Osiris.

Anyways, let's start with my facts on why all this life is NOT an accident. (in my opinion)

1: If the Big Bang created the universe, what were the chemicals that caused it? And what created those chemicals that caused the Big Bang? And what created those chemicals that created those chemicals that created the Big Bang? (ect ect)

2: Why is the universe followed by laws. Such as gravity, ect ect.

3: Where did water come from? How was it created? (in space)

let see if i can break this down for you.

1. not sure by what you mean, what chemicals caused it. the elements that were created in the big bang are not chemical in nature. these elements, or chemicals as you called them did not cause the big bang. chemical of the chemical cause the big bang? science does not know what caused the big bang, but this does not mean you can inject god in to the gaps of understanding to prove anything. the most basic elements are thought to have been created in the big bang, most importantly hydrogen. hydrogen is the fuel that power the stars of the cosmos. in some of these stars, supernova happen. that is how we get our more complex elements such as carbon, iron, silver, gold, lead, uranium, and any other complex element.

2. we do not know why the universe is bound by certain laws. humanity has only just started with observation of the physical laws of the universe in the past 600 to 700 years. we have built understanding upon the laws that we understand and what the relationship between laws of physics are. the universe is anything but clockwork and it is very violent place to live in.

3. water is simply the end result of the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen mixed heated to combustion and the end result is water. not sure how old you are, but i am pretty sure i learned this in 4th grade science.

EVOLUTION: If we came from monkeys, there's supposed to be no more monkeys. There are still monkeys. WTF?

The statement doesn't make any sense, nothing in evolution precludes the existence of monkeys if we exist. Why do you think it does?

Sort of like; "If you say Sand is used to make glass, since there is glass, why does sand still exist?

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An Omnipowerful God needed to sacrifice himself to himself (but only for a long weekend) in order to avert his own wrath against his own creations who he made in a manner knowing that they weren't going to live up to his standards.

Q: Is the bible true?A: I'm pretty sure it's 100% true. Besides, I heard that scientists heard Egypt in the bible, so he started finding it, and they found it (I think they found more ancient cities found in the bible)

wow, how amazingly ignorant. Do you realize that just because a city is mentioned in your myth that does not make it true? If it did, then the Greek/Roman myths, the Egyptian myths, etc are all just as true as yours. And at least be aware of the correct Christian lies, it's Nineveh they claim, not Egypt.

What a sad proudly ignorant person you are.

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Q: Why did the flood occured during Noah's time?A: Noah was the only good person (literally) in the whole world. God The Father wanted to wipe out all the humans except Noah and his family and animals. Why did God did this? Imagine your friend kicking you and stealing your stuff, and the murdering you in a night. Scary huh? Yeah, they were that bad. So God told Noah to make an ark and gather all the animals and stuff.

No evidence at all. Just nonsense rpeated by ignorant people.

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Q: Did God really create the Earth in seven days?A: Yes, he did. Some people said it took billions of years, there wrong. Changing and creating is completely different. It took billions of years to change the Earth, it only took 7 days to create the Earth. You heard of the Big Bang? If true, the Big Bang lasted 0.0000000001 millisecond (Or something). Then God merged rocks and put magma in it, then let it rotate to a sun at the perfect distance, then God changed the world so we humans can live.

Wow, how old is this guy? You must be about 7 or so ill-educated that you didn't even get through 6 grade science.

and that old piece of crap about monkeys. One more poor little Daniel in the lions' den and no god to save him from his own stupidity.

Av, I know it can be hard, but you need to realize that adults have lied to you about all of this Christianity nonsense. Your repeating this crap makes you look like an idiot.

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"There is no use in arguing with a man who can multiply anything by the square root of minus 1" - Pirates of Venus, ERB

Sort of like; "If you say Sand is used to make glass, since there is glass, why does sand still exist?

Hey, its just my opinion, which makes it perfectly ok to lie about subjects I'm entirely ignorant about.

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"Religious faith is the antithesis to knowledge, it is the opposition to education, and it has to act in animosity against the free exchange of ideas. Why? Because those things are what cause harm to a religions place in society most." - Me

"Religious faith is the antithesis to knowledge, it is the opposition to education, and it has to act in animosity against the free exchange of ideas. Why? Because those things are what cause harm to a religions place in society most." - Me

Q: Who is God?A: He is the Creator of everything, his son is Jesus and his mother is Mary. I think...

Wait... aren't we all considered the 'Children of God'...? Wouldn't Mary have been a child of God all her life?And then she gave birth to Jesus... who is God... because God impregnated her.

So she is Mother, Consort, and Daughter.

INCEST! GOD DID INCEST!

Therefore Incest must be OK.

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"You play make-believe every day of your life, and yet you have no concept of 'imagination'."I do not have "faith" in science. I have expectations of science. "Faith" in something is an unfounded assertion, whereas reasonable expectations require a precedent.

How do you think the earth got populated after starting out with just Adam and Eve? And later it's the same ballgame again with Noah and his family (except that this time it's 8 people doing the re-populating instead of just two.)

He signed on for a second earlier today and haunted the thread before disappearing without response.

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"Religious faith is the antithesis to knowledge, it is the opposition to education, and it has to act in animosity against the free exchange of ideas. Why? Because those things are what cause harm to a religions place in society most." - Me

I know I'm ignorant, like all of you, we all still have much to learn.

This is true. However what free thinkers and rational people try to do when we know nothing about something is study, listen and learn - and especially dig out the honesty to admit that we "don't know" I can recommend this approach to you - it will take you far in life in ALL things.

Religion does not do this. It proclaims loudly that it knows the answer to everything even though it has no evidence and books chock-full of holes and ancient ideas.

This constant nongness despite religion having its ass kicked on a regular basis by science. You never hear an apology from religion for getting it COMPLETELY wrong on the cause of lightning, disease, and changes in wind direction ... no red faces over the shape of the earth, the position of the sun at the centre of the solar system, the age of the earth, the fact of evolution, the Turin shroud, dental miracles, failures of end-times prophecies etc. Religion marches on immune to real knowledge - always with another wave of carefully programmed bullshit sprouting faithful youngsters ready to replace the more mature ones that fade under the mounting burden of their private doubts.

Atheists can be cheeky alright - but religion, under its cloak of piety and righteousness, is deeply arrogant and dishonest. Religion perpetuates ignorance because its lifeblood is ignorance.

Or so it seems, from our limited understanding and knowledge of things.

The key here is to remain humble in your thinking, and decidedly unimpressed by claims that have no basis in logic. Hence, those who claim a god, and cannot explain its origin, are explaining absolutely nothing. They are simply inventing an answer for that which they cannot truly explain, and being satisfied.

Always remember that science stops where it cannot explain. It states unequivocally that it does not have an explanation, and then it marches on to discover one. No honest scientist will try to tell you that which it cannot explain through the scientific method. And neither will he ignore that there must be an explanation. This is honest.

Well no. Think of a sine wave or an oscillation. Both pass through zero - nothing can be a transient state. We do not YET know what was on the other side of the Big Bang, or if nothing is unstable in terms of quantum mechanics. Evidence is emerging in this area - it takes enquiring open minds to encourage this work. Religion is blocking its ears on this and claiming it knows better - that it knows with absolute certainty GOD CAME FROM NOWHERE and MADE STUFF FROM NOTHING! Do you see a problem here?

I did not came here to turn you into believers, I simply came to know more about you.

It turns out that 'nothing' is very hard to achieve. Given that energy can turn into matter and matter into energy, all it takes is a tiny bit of differing potential to create energy, which in turn can, form time to time, turn into to matter, and bingo, there is no nothing any more.

There is math to prove this, but you have to get way past flunking algebra to understand it.

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It isn't true that non-existent gods can't do anything. For instance, they were able to make me into an atheist.

Well, Avascar, right away I can see two hypothetical solutions to this problem.

One: Perhaps there has always been "something" and it just keeps changing form.

Two: Perhaps "nothing" is capable of toggling into "something" through some not-yet-explained phenomenon. For all we know, the Big Bang could be a chain reaction from a single quantum fluctuation switching from 0 to 1.

Well, Avascar, right away I can see two hypothetical solutions to this problem.

One: Perhaps there has always been "something" and it just keeps changing form.

Two: Perhaps "nothing" is capable of toggling into "something" through some not-yet-explained phenomenon. For all we know, the Big Bang could be a chain reaction from a single quantum fluctuation switching from 0 to 1.

I call this the Underwear Gnomes school of theistic thought

Step One: Find something that current scientific models are unable to measure or sufficiently explain

Step Two: (Shrug)

Step Three: Declare the God of Christendom exists!

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An Omnipowerful God needed to sacrifice himself to himself (but only for a long weekend) in order to avert his own wrath against his own creations who he made in a manner knowing that they weren't going to live up to his standards.

For me, there is a very big difference between concepts I consider to be "nothing" and "absolute nothing." When I imagine nothing I think of an absence of any type of matter in a three dimensional (or more) vacuum. But this vacuum is still bound to time and dimensions. When I imagine absolute nothing, on the other hand, there is no time, no vacuum, no dimensions; absolutely nothing. It's hard for me to grasp.